Minter had expressed an interest in programming computers from a young age. He wrote the game Deflex for the Commodore PET in 1979.[3] However it would not be until a long illness during secondary school that Minter's talents would develop in any meaningful way. Following a 3-month stint in which Minter was restricted to lying on his back and was confined to his bed between November 1981 and January 1982, boredom led him to take up computer programming in earnest to pass the time.[4]

Upon recovery, Minter teamed up with Richard Jones, a fellow pupil, and together they started writing their own games on their school's Commodore PET.[5] They soon parted ways. Jones went on to commercial projects, some of them in the software market (e.g., Interceptor Micros).

In 1981 Minter started independently writing and selling video games for the Sinclair ZX80, the first machine he owned. Some were made for software company dk'tronics.[6] These titles were sold as a package but this was not available for very long, as Minter left the company following a royalties dispute.[3] He formed a partnership with his mother, Hazel Minter. Together they developed and commercially produced 20 games for the Sinclair ZX81, Commodore VIC-20, Atari 8-bit computers, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Having been studying physics at the University of East Anglia, success in the programming industry prompted him to drop his studies and take up video game development full-time.[4]

The following year, he founded the software house Llamasoft.[7] His first Llamasoft game was a Defender clone for the Commodore VIC-20 called Andes Attack (US version: Aggressor). In Andes Attack, little llamas advanced upon and attacked the player instead of the spaceships from Defender. As a fan of Defender, Minter would remake it again as Defender 2000. Using the name 'Salamander Software', Minter released Gridrunner, published by Quicksilva Ltd. UK – this was written in a week and marked his first commercial success both in the UK and in the US.

Minter then wrote games for the Pocket PC platform, some of which also had PC conversions (using a customised Pocket PC emulator). During this time, Minter released three games: Deflex, Hover Bovver 2:Grand Theft Flymo (a reinterpretation of his own 1984 game, Hover Bovver), and the PC/Macintosh game Gridrunner++ (the third title in the Gridrunner series).

In 2002, he began work on a music video game for the Nintendo GameCube to be called Unity. Using the newest version of his VLM, the VLM-3 or Neon, Unity was to combine the two main threads of Minter's prior career: light synthesis and classic arcade style shooting. Minter was involved in writing this game for Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios throughout 2003; however, the project was cancelled in December 2004. Neon has since been reprogrammed and significantly expanded and is used in Xbox 360 media visualisation.[8]

In 2010, frustrated with the delays surrounding the release of his titles, Minter was keen to return to a style of game development where games could be produced and released quickly. The iOS platform was chosen and Llamasoft announced that a series of games would be produced under the banner The Minotaur Project.[10] The idea behind the series is that Llamasoft would develop a game in the style of an old piece of hardware but without the constraints of the original hardware.

On 2 March 2011 Llamasoft released their second iOS game, Minotron: 2112.[12] Minotron: 2112 is the remake of the Atari ST / Amiga classic, Llamatron (which is inspired by the coin-op video game Robotron: 2084). An iOS version of Deflex was also released although this was not specifically labeled as being part of the Minotaur Project.

On 17 September 2011, Llamasoft released GoatUp, the first platform game they have produced.[13]

Super Ox Wars, a shoot-em-up based on Ikaruga was released in July 2012; the final game in the series, GoatUp 2 was released in March 2013, unique in that it is the only Llamasoft title to feature a level editor. Minter then announced his intention to abandon mobile development due to lack of discoverability, low turnover, and the dominance of free-to-play and video game clones; he ultimately declared that, after accounting for his time, the Minotaur Project made a net loss.[citation needed] Jeff stated on Twitter than "Returning to iOS would be like returning to the scene of a mugging" [1] and "I would advise any dev valuing integrity and sanity to just get the hell out". [2]

The code framework for the Minotaur Project games enables them to be rebuilt for both Mac and PC versions.[15] Gridrunner was released for the Mac in August 2012.

In April 2013 it was announced that Llamasoft had signed a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment to create a tube shooter for the PlayStation Vita called TxK.[16] The game would be Llamasoft's fourth tube shooter in two decades and was described as the spiritual successor of 1994's Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. As Minter explained in his development blog the project goals were to create a more traditional, straightforward and accessible tube shooter than Space Giraffe, to improve on the flaws from Tempest 2000 and Tempest 3000, and to evoke the neo-retro aesthetic without being cheesy.[17] TxK was released on Feb 11, 2014, by digital download through PSN.[citation needed]

In online forums and informal game credits pages Minter usually signs as "Yak", which is, in his own words

"a pseudonym chosen a long time ago, back in the days when hi-score tables on coin-op machines only held three letters, and I settled on Yak because the yak is a scruffy hairy beast – a lot like me ;-)."[18]

He lives in Wales with his partner Ivan "Giles" Zorzin, four sheep, two goats, two llamas and a dog.[19] Although Minter is synonymous with Llamasoft, Zorzin is also jointly responsible for the recent titles.

Minotaur Project series: This series of games pay homage to classic retro platforms. Each game is implemented as if running on a modernised version of the classic platform it represents. Originally developed for the iOS platform the games are being ported to both OS X and Android.